Writing Guide
- Please read through the canon before writing anything for it. This includes the info tabs on this page (Prometheus Labs, Other Organizations, References) and all tales written for this canon. It is also advised that you read the articles linked to in the info tabs, especially if you plan on writing something involving them.
- All pages that are part of this canon should have this hub page set as their parent, to allow for breadcrumbs navigation.
- All pages that are part of this canon should be tagged with third-law.
- When providing citations, use the APA format. This is to maintain a consistent citation style across articles. If you're not writing PL GOI formats, you probably don't need to worry about this.
- The info tabs are there to provide a starting point to work from, not the end-all-be-all of what does and doesn't exist in this canon. If you want to use a subsidiary, successor, facility, character, project, or product not listed in one of the info tabs, feel free to do so as long as it doesn't contradict anything else in the canon. We'll try to keep the info tabs updated with any of these new additions to the canon.
- It is preferred that any articles written explicitly for this canon use the Third Law CSS theme. You can do this by adding the following code to the top of your article. It will even work on the sandbox!
[[module CSS]]
@import url(/component:3lawtheme/code/1);
[[/module]]
- We have an IRC channel, #Apotheosis on SynIRC. Join us for brainstorming and discussion of Third Law.
- We also have a brainstorming sandbox, linked here, where we jot down all the pieces of world-building information that don't fit on this page.
Tone
Stories in this canon should focus, first and foremost, on human ingenuity and capability. Prometheus Labs is an organization dedicated to using scientific methods and reasoning to understand anomalous phenomena and repurpose them in service to mankind. There can be set backs, even failures, but care should be taken not to give Prometheus Labs, or anyone else, the "idiot ball" when doing so.
While it might not be as easy to write action-packed, drama-filled stories with this kind of tone, it is by no means impossible, and such stories are welcome in this canon. On the other hand, we'd also like to encourage cerebral, character-driven stories, as these kinds of stories are well-suited to this tone. In the end, as long as your story is well written and works within the setting, it doesn't matter what kind of story it is, we'll be happy to have it.
Themes
You’ll probably be interested in incorporating some science fiction or super-science tropes into your story. That’s what Prometheus Labs (both in- and out-of universe) was built on, and that’s what its bread and butter is. These tropes can make for both exciting action- and character-driven tales simply by their nature; just make sure that the science doesn’t overwhelm the story.
There’s all kinds of different ways to incorporate these themes into your tales: jump into the future, rediscover the past, visit a parallel timeline; explore how people in different times and universes think and live; reconstruct the tropes of the golden age of science fiction, focusing on exploration and discovery — peeling back the veil and exploiting the mysteries of the universe. Or you could take a more pragmatic approach by examining how greasing the wheels of capitalism with paratech can affect our daily lives. Take a page from the punk and dystopia genres with black market cybernetics, trafficked robots, and shadowy megacorporations. Or maybe you just want to explore modern day problems with scientific twists. Poverty, hunger, and disease are all problems that science is searching for an answer to, so why not super-science too?
Your science can be as hard or soft as you want, as long as it's consistent within your story (and within the larger canon). But try to avoid extremes like "Prometheus Labs invents the Speed Force" or spending five pages explaining the theory behind your warp drive.
Just like science itself, this canon offers a huge amount of flexibility for you to explore the way you want to. The sky is the limit — so write about a machine to reach for the stars.
Suggested Reading
These are articles and tales that are not part of the canon, but which have influenced it in some way or are intended to be in continuity with it.
- Global Occult Coalition Casefiles — The GOC canon. Most of this is in complete or nearly-complete continuity with this canon, especially the lectures on thaumatology.
- A Brief Explanation of Demonics — A primer on demonics. Not in continuity with this canon, primarily due to a conflict in in-universe history, but the explanation of demonics as a technology should be referred to if using it in something written for this canon.
- Anderson Robotics — Most of the Anderson Robotics tales are in complete or nearly-complete continuity with this canon, specifically the ones listed in the "Investigative Timeline".
- UIU Location Dossier -- "Three Portlands" — The text of the hub page is considered to be fully within this canon, and many of the Three Portlands stories are compatible with this canon.
- S&C Plastics — While many of the technical details are incompatible with this canon, S&C Plastics can generally be treated as being in partial continuity, as most of the characters and events depicted are compatible with this canon in a rough form.
- The Coldest War — Many of the concepts and premises of the Coldest War are compatible with this canon, although some of the events depicted therein are incompatible with the established history in this canon, preventing complete continuity.
- The Cool War — The general events and characters of the Cool War are in nearly-complete continuity with this canon, although certain details (particularly those related to the character of Nobody) are non-canon. Note that this level of continuity does not extend to the rest of Acidverse, which is generally considered non-canon.
History
Prior to their collapse in 1998, the Prometheus Labs conglomerate was the single largest manufacturer of paratechnology in the world. Founded in 1892 with the goal of researching and developing anomalous technologies for the benefit of humanity, Prometheus Labs remained relatively small for the first half of its history. However, the increased demand for paratech caused by the Second World War and the concurrent Seventh Occult War allowed Prometheus Labs to expand its operations.
In the wake of these wars the demand for paratech continued to grow, fueled by the expansion of international normalcy preservation organizations and a clandestine supernatural arms race between national paranormal agencies. Prometheus Labs benefited greatly from this paratech bubble, rapidly developing into a multi-billion dollar, worldwide research conglomerate.
The end of the Cold War brought a sharp decrease in demand for paratech, as world governments drastically cut funding for paranormal operations. The bursting of this paratech bubble left Prometheus Labs in dire financial straits, a situation made even worse by their heavy reliance on esoteric investment techniques. A series of catastrophic research accidents in the late 90s managed to finally push the company over the brink of insolvency in the early months of 1998.
In September 1998, the primary holding company, Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., was dissolved. Its subsidiaries had all either been sold back to themselves or sold off to other companies and organizations, splintering the once-massive conglomerate into over a dozen smaller businesses. With the sheer size and complexity of the Prometheus conglomerate, it is not surprising that this transition did not go perfectly — multiple high-value assets were "lost" and several subsidiaries suffered "accidents" during the dissolution.
The breakup of the Prometheus conglomerate greatly disrupted the global paratech trade; the dissolution and fragmentation of the world's largest developer, manufacturer, and supplier of paratech threw the entire industry into chaos, as existing and new business interests alike attempted to expand their operations into the void that had been left behind.
Corporate Structure
Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. was merely a holding company for dozens of subsidiaries operating under the Prometheus label, many of which were also holding companies for even more subsidiaries. Each of these subsidiaries operated with a high degree of independence under the direction of their own boards of directors and executive committees. Through these subsidiaries, the Prometheus Labs conglomerate provided a vast array of services and products, ranging from dishwashers to cruise missiles. At its peak, the conglomerate employed almost 300,000 people, and had a net revenue of approximately $75 billion.
- Prometheus Automobile Group – An independent subsidiary of Prometheus Labs based in Ontario. Originally a non-anomalous automobile manufacturer that was bought-out by Prometheus, most of its products contained little or no paratech.
- Prometheus Biotech – A holding company large enough to be considered a conglomerate in its own right, formed from the merger and restructuring of Prometheus Advanced Agriculture and Prometheus Biomedical.
- Prometheus Medical – Formerly Prometheus Biomedical, it was renamed after its non-medical projects were transferred to Prometheus Bioengineering.
- Pharmaceuticals Division – One of two major divisions of Prometheus Medical. It was tasked with developing treatments and cures for paradiseases and investigating esoteric treatments of mundane diseases. Most notable for synthesizing the first vaccine for transformative lycanthropy.
- Prosthetics Division – The other major division of Prometheus Medical. It specialized in developing paratech for use in medical implants and devices.
- Prometheus Bioengineering – The result of the merger of Prometheus Advanced Agriculture with the Biotechnology Division of Prometheus Medical. Worked on non-medical biotechnology, with a strong focus on agricultural applications of paratech.
- Agricultural Division – Formed from the core of Prometheus Advanced Agriculture. Developed the first reliable technique for using thaumaturgy to manipulate plant genomes.
- Prometheus Chemicals – An independent subsidiary of Prometheus Labs, responsible for manufacturing a large variety of anomalous chemicals.
- Iris Arts – An independently branded subsidiary of Prometheus Chemicals that marketed anomalous art supplies to anartists.
- Prometheus Computing – A holding company for several of Prometheus' computer related subsidiaries. Most of its assets were sold off to the Foundation front company Standard Computer Products in the months prior to the collapse of the conglomerate.
- Prometheus Advanced Logic Devices – A subsidiary of Prometheus Computing based in New Mexico. It specialized in the development of computing hardware based on non-conventional architectures, such as demonics and memristors.
- Prometheus Software Solutions – Another subsidiary of Prometheus Computing. Most of its work was focused on developing software required by the company's other projects.
- Prometheus Consumer Technologies – An independent subsidiary of Prometheus Labs based in North Carolina. Its most profitable product was a microwave that heats food more evenly through the use of minor spatial distortion.
- Prometheus Defense – One of Prometheus' most profitable subsidiaries. Multiple attempts were made by normalcy preservation organizations and national paranormal agencies to seize its assets following the collapse of the conglomerate, only to come into conflict with both each other and Prometheus' defensive systems. While some facilities were successfully seized, others remain quarantined to this day.
- Aerospace Research Division – A major division of Prometheus Defense specializing in developing paratech for aircraft, spacecraft, and airborne weapons systems. Responsible for the designs of stealth technologies used in many Foundation and GOC aircraft.
- Naval Projects Division – A major division of Prometheus Defense focused on naval and maritime applications of paratech. It operated a research submarine, called the Nemo, which acted as a testbed and science platform for many of their technologies. In the weeks following the collapse of the Prometheus conglomerate, the Nemo was hunted down and seized by GRU-P and the Russian Navy.
- Prometheus Energy – A holding company for Prometheus' ventures into energy production and distribution.
- Archimedes Solar – A subsidiary of Prometheus Energy created to manage several different projects into solar power production.
- Hyperion Atomics – An atomic energy provider which operated a number of nuclear reactors incorporating varying amounts of paratechnology, including the world's first power-producing fusion reactor, which was built under contract from the French government.
- Poseidon Petroleum – A petroleum production company tasked with using paratechnology to tap into undersea oil wells that would otherwise be unprofitable.
Successor Companies
While a large number of Prometheus' personnel and projects were assimilated into the research arms of the Foundation and GOC after the conglomerate collapsed, the company's complex corporate structure has allowed many of its divisions and branches to continue operating independently, despite the demise of their parent company. Some of the more notable ones are listed below.
Amrita Therapeutics
Formerly a subsidiary of Prometheus Bioengineering, Amrita Therapeutics rebranded itself after the collapse to continue manufacturing the highly profitable All-Natural Automatons. In recent years, Amrita has begun expanding into the development and commercialization of stem-cell based technologies in the field of regenerative medicine, but remains committed to the continued development and support of ANAs.
Archimedes
Formerly Archimedes Solar, a subsidiary of Prometheus Energy, Archimedes widened the scope of its operations and rebranded itself following the collapse of Prometheus Labs. The core of Archimedes remains centered on solar power generation, but the company has expanded into related areas such as heating, electrical wiring, desalination, and wireless power transmission.
Argo Automotives
Known as Prometheus Automobile Group prior to the collapse of the conglomerate, Argo Automotives operated from 1998 to 2009, when it was forced into liquidation following the failure of the paraeconomic investment strategy it had relied on for funding. During this time, it had a reputation for selling high-tech, high-performance vehicles.
Redzone Security
A software company specializing in developing programs for anomalous applications, formed by the core development team of Prometheus Software Solutions in 1998. It is also responsible for maintaining the servers that made up the Prometheus Labs intranet, which has kept this network available, to a limited extent, to Prometheus' successor companies.
Silver Hand Cybernetics
Previously the Prosthetics Division of Prometheus Medical, Silver Hand Cybernetics developed products almost exclusively for sale to the anomalous community. It operated from 1998 to 2004, when it was bought out by its primary competitor, Anderson Robotics.
Titan Consumer Appliances and Electronics
Formerly Prometheus Consumer Technologies, Titan Consumer Appliances and Electronics took on its current name and branding in 1999. Titan focuses on developing consumer applications for paratech, a goal which often brings it into conflict with normalcy preservation agencies.
Overview
Many organizations use paratech to some extent, and those that don't make their own buy it from others. As tends to happen in capitalist systems, an industry has sprung up around the development and sale of paratechnology.
Operating under the assumption that shutting down known suppliers would force the industry underground, the Foundation and the GOC have allowed a limited market for paratech to flourish, although not without regulation. Nothing openly anomalous can be sold to the public, and commercial products containing paratech have to pass rigid QA and marketing guidelines to prevent their anomalous nature from being discovered.
However, the largest consumers of paratech remain the same normalcy preservation agencies that are responsible for regulating the industry. The conflict of interest created by this has allowed paratech suppliers a degree of leeway when it comes to following regulations.
The following organizations and entities are involved in the paratech trade, either as consumers, producers, or regulators.
The Foundation
The largest of the normalcy preservation agencies, the Foundation is a worldwide organization with numerous fronts, facilities, and personnel. Its stated mission is the acquisition, containment, and study of anomalous objects in order to protect humanity. Despite an institutional and ideologically opposition to the use of anomalous objects to accomplish this mission, it will resort to the use of paratechnology and other well-understood anomalies when circumstances require it.
While much of its paratechnology is developed in-house, it is not averse to contracting with third-party manufacturers. Following the collapse of the Prometheus conglomerate, the Foundation managed to acquire many of Prometheus' former assets, including a significant body of its research and a large number of its personnel. This has only further reduced the Foundation's reliance on outside sources of paratech.
Global Occult Coalition
The Global Occult Coalition is an international normalcy preservation agency backed by the United Nations and composed of over 100 individual organizations involved in the occult and paranormal. The GOC was formed out of the Allied Occult Initiative in the wake of the Seventh Occult War. It is approximately equal in power and reach to the Foundation, and shares a similar goal of protecting humanity and preserving normalcy. However, its methods differ greatly, and include the widespread use of paratech to accomplish its goals.
Much of the GOC's paratech research is performed by its member organizations; however, the manufacturing of its paratech is often outsourced to the private sector in order to meet demands. With the collapse of the Prometheus conglomerate and the subsequent disruption of the paratech industry, the GOC has found itself looking for new paratech suppliers that can meet its high demands.
FBI Unusual Incidents Unit
The FBI's Unusual Incidents Unit is the primary domestic paranormal agency of the United States, tasked with enforcing paranormal regulations and upholding the Veil. Due to a limit of means and jurisdiction, the UIU largely focuses on investigating paranormal crimes and covering-up anomalous incidents. One of their most important functions is policing the numerous pocket universes within the US, which act as enclaves for the paranormal community.
The UIU has played a vital role in tracking down Prometheus Labs assets that were lost or stolen during the breakup, which has limited the growth of the black market paratech trade within the US.
GRU Division "P"
One of the Soviet Union's two major paranormal agencies, GRU-P was created during the Second World War to protect the Soviet Union from paranormal and occult threats, and to utilize esoteric weaponry against the country's enemies. With the onset of the Cold War and the paratech arms race, the division's role was expanded to include recovery and reverse engineering of anomalous objects and paratech. In this role, it performed corporate espionage and theft of intellectual property on a number of companies, including Prometheus Labs.
With the end of the Cold War, GRU-P has found itself as the sole remaining paranormal agency of the Russian Federation. Its operations are now focused largely on dealing with the black market for anomalous objects and paratech that has arisen in post-communist Russia.
Joint Occult Venture of Europe
The Joint Occult Venture of Europe is a multinational paranormal organization composed of various European national paranormal agencies and loosely affiliated with the European Union. Organized along similar lines to Frontex, JOVE performs a role similar to that of the American UIU, maintaining the Veil within Europe and policing paranormal enclaves. Extremely limited in personnel and funding, JOVE primarily acts as a facilitator and coordinator for the multiple national and international organizations operating within Europe.
The catalyst for JOVE's formation, and the primary focus of its few field operations, are the expanding activities of the paracrime syndicate Scarlet Hammer and the accompanying influx of illegal Soviet paratech into Western Europe. In this role, JOVE was instrumental in coordinating the multi-agency response to Incident Shattered Gyro, in which elements of Scarlet Hammer attempted to use salvaged Soviet paraweaponry to provoke a resumption of hostilities on the island of Cyprus.
The Factory
Despite being one of the largest suppliers of anomalous raw materials, the entity known as the Factory has no known investors, board of directors, executive officers, or even manufacturing facilities. What is known is that they act as a supplier of anomalous materials and components to other paratechnology companies, although the quality of these materials is often suspect.
The disruption of the paratech industry caused by the collapse of Prometheus Labs has afforded the Factory an opportunity to expand their operations. While most of the companies that emerged from the breakup are aware of the Factory's poor reputation, many of them have no other suppliers to turn to.
Anderson Robotics
A rising force in the paratech trade, Anderson Robotics is a startup founded in 1994, which specializes in the development of advanced robotics and cybernetics. Their interactions with Prometheus Labs prior to its breakup were limited and few; Prometheus Labs had already started on the path that would eventually lead to its collapse, while Anderson Robotics was still in its infancy.
The dissolution of Prometheus Labs was a boon to Anderson Robotics, as it removed a large potential competitor from the market and provided them with the opportunity to hire many of the conglomerate's now-unemployed robotics researchers. Since then, Anderson Robotics has grown into the world's foremost supplier of robotics paratechnology.
Marshall, Carter and Dark, Ltd.
Although primarily a "gentlemen's club" catering to the super-rich, Marshall, Carter and Dark also engage in the buying and reselling of paratechnology. They act as a sort of middleman for the industry, establishing links between suppliers of raw materials, manufacturers of finished goods, and consumers of paratech products. They benefit greatly from their client base in this role, using the connections this affords them to orchestrate highly profitable exchanges.
While the collapse of the Prometheus conglomerate has robbed them of one of their most profitable business partners, it has also given them an opportunity to grow their network. Where previously Prometheus Labs would handle exchanges of assets between its subsidiaries on its own, the collapse of the conglomerate has left this role vacant. A role which Marshall, Carter and Dark have readily filled.
Manna Charitable Foundation
The Manna Charitable Foundation is a nonprofit humanitarian relief organization founded in 1971. While most of their operations are mundane in nature, they have on numerous occasions attempted to utilize paratechnology to provide humanitarian aid. These efforts are, for the most part, successful, although a number of highly damaging failures in the 1980s and 1990s have tarnished the organization's reputation.
Like many organizations that depended on Prometheus Labs as a paratech supplier, the Manna Charitable Foundation has suffered from the collapse of the Prometheus conglomerate. The loss of such a large source of dependable paratech has forced them to rely on aging supplies of existing paratech, and less reliable anomalous methods in order to continue operating on the same scale.
Church of the Broken God
The relationship between the Church of the Broken God and Prometheus Labs (and its successors) was and remains complicated, due to the heavily sectarian nature of the Church. While the Broken Church was largely indifferent towards Prometheus Labs, the same cannot be said of the religion's other two major sects.
The Cogworks Orthodox Church was highly critical of, and even overtly hostile towards, Prometheus Labs, as their strict adherence to the use of purely mechanical machinery and denouncement of electronic devices is at odds with the founding principles of the high-technology conglomerate. The Patriarchs of the Cogworks Orthodoxy declared the company to be blasphemous through its very existence; they celebrated its dissolution as the demise of a great evil.
In contrast to the Orthodoxy, the Church of Maxwellism endorsed Prometheus Labs and its products, and collaborated with them on several computing and cybernetics projects. Many of Prometheus' employees were adherents of Maxwellism, which only furthered the ties between the two groups. The breakup of the conglomerate was seen by Maxwellists as a terrible catastrophe; this sect of the Church has actively worked to try and stabilize the paratech market in the wake of this event, and has lent its support to the numerous successor companies that emerged from the breakup.
Servants of the Silicon Nornir
A transhumanist religion and GOC member organization, the Servants believe that their purpose is to bring about the creation of the "True Silicon Goddess" — a benevolent hyperintelligence that will shepherd humanity into the future — by hastening the onset of the technological singularity. To this end, they follow a trio of precognitive sentient supercomputers — named Urthor, Verthandi, and Skuldir after the Norns of Norse mythology — which direct them in their efforts.
As a member of the GOC, the Servants are afforded a great degree of leeway, which allows them to maintain a larger and more centralized structure than other transhumanist religions like the Church of Maxwellism. The Servants have used their position of relative immunity to help grow the paratech industry. The most visible effect of their influence is the pocket universe and megalopolis of Eurtec, which functions as a hub and haven for paratech research.
International Center for the Study of Unified Thaumatology
The largest occult college in the world, the ICSUT is a GOC member and one of their biggest research partners. Founded in 1913, ICSUT specializes in the study and teaching of thaumatology — the scientific investigation of the mystic and occult. ICSUT has campuses all around the world, including locations in London, Zurich, and Three Portlands.
Historically, ICSUT collaborated extensively with Prometheus Labs, most notably in the creation of the Everhart Resonator. With the decline and dissolution of the Prometheus conglomerate, ICSUT has shifted its focus towards research into theoretical thaumatology.
Serpent's Hand
The relationship between Prometheus Labs and the Serpent's Hand was an odd one. While both groups seek ever greater understanding of the universe(s) which they inhabit, many of the members of the Library disdained the Labs' methodologies, likening them to tomb raiders and commonly referring to them as 'Pilferers'. For its part, Prometheus Labs remained totally unaware of the existence of the Library… though there are rumors that some of their more esoteric discoveries were not entirely their own.
Following the collapse of Prometheus Labs, some of its employees discovered the Library and quickly found a new home there. Most of these members tend to be secretive about their time at Prometheus, but will readily share their knowledge of paratechnology with anyone who wants to learn.
The Black Queen
The Black Queen is the moniker of a number of individuals capable of traveling between multiverses. Due to their different origins, each Black Queen typically has their own distinct goals and methods, though certain common aspects exist. These include the absence of her father and the discovery of the Wanderer's Library.
Several Black Queens are currently active within our multiverse, many of whom are engaged in cross-multiverse paratech dealing. At least one Black Queen is involved in the operations of the Chaos Insurgency, and others are known to be loosely affiliated with the Serpent's Hand.
Scarlet Hammer
The Division of Special Circumstances was the paranormal arm of the KGB, responsible for maintaining the Soviet Union's stockpile of paraweapons. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the KGB, including the Division of Special Circumstances, was disbanded due to its role in the abortive August Coup. In response, multiple officers within the DSC, led by the former Director, went rogue, disappearing with a large number of Soviet paraweapons. These renegade DSC elements would become the paranormal crime syndicate known as Scarlet Hammer.
Scarlet Hammer are the largest dealer of paraweaponry and illegal paratech within the former Soviet bloc, although their operations have also extended into Western Europe and Southeast Asia. They are believed to be in competition with the Chaos Insurgency, another major seller of black market paraweapons.
Chaos Insurgency
The Chaos Insurgency is a loose coalition of several different radical occult groups. Their goals and their methods are varied and various, to such an extent that it is not uncommon for different factions within the Insurgency to be working against each other. What they all share, however, is a desire to overturn the existing status quo as enforced by normalcy preservation agencies.
Considered a terrorist organization by most major powers, the Insurgency operates through stealth and subterfuge. Their activities include smuggling anomalous objects, weapons dealing (both mundane and paranormal), human and anahuman trafficking, espionage, blackmail, and sabotage.
